Courts and Crime

Major Ricky Gardner isn’t changing his views on the guilt of convicted double-murderer Jens Soering, no matter what Soering’s lawyer may argue.
“Mr. (Steven) Rosenfield’s announcement this week does not change the status of Jens Soering’s conviction. In fact, these results have been publicly known for several years,” Gardner said of disputed blood evidence in the case.

Charges against a 43-year-old Moneta man for having sex with a woman without her consent have been certified to a Bedford grand jury.
Judge Stephanie Maddox certified two felony charges—rape of a helpless victim and forcible sodomy of a helpless victim— and one misdemeanor charge of sexual battery, against Christopher Morgan Pannell.

Last Tuesday August 16, investigators from the Bedford County Sheriff’s Office Vice Unit, assisted by the Bedford Police Department, executed a search warrant for 912 Grand Arbre Dr. in the town of Bedford. The search warrant was in reference to the alleged distribution and sale of cocaine from the residence.

An ongoing dispute between some Bedford residents has led to multiple charges being filed in connection with a fight and a fire being set.
The most recent charges came Aug. 8 when a call was made about a structure fire in the 200 block of Mill Street.
According to a report from the Bedford Police Department, property under the house was damaged and part of the residence was damaged.

According to a plea agreement between McAlexander and Virginia Assistant Attorney General Samuel Gene Fishel, McAlexander pleaded guilty to one charge of distributing child pornography.
Four other child porn charges were not prosecuted as part of the agreement. Though the charges weren’t prosecuted, the defendant could later be re-indicted on the same charge.

More details of the case against a 26-year-old man charged with soliciting a relationship with a 14-year-old Bedford County girl came to light last Wednesday during a preliminary hearing on an abduction by force charge.
Already indicted on four counts of computer solicitation and one count of carnal knowledge, the additional abduction charge against Angelo E. Paderes Sr., has now been certified to the grand jury after Judge Joseph Serkes found there was sufficient evidence to send the case on to the grand jury.

Patricia Jean Welch, 66, entered an Alford plea Tuesday to a charge of lying to a multi-jurisdictional grand jury investigating the case of two sisters who went missing in 1975 in Maryland.

Welch was found guilty of the charge, but won’t spend any time in jail, receiving a two-year suspended sentence. She will have to pay a $1,000 fine and be on good behavior for five years.
“We’re satisfied with the Alford plea,” stated Patricia Ann Welch, the daughter of Patricia Jean Welch.

A Salem man pleaded guilty to five counts of possession of child pornography, receiving a five-year prison sentence.
William McKinley Hollie, 49, entered the pleas last Friday, Aug. 5, as part of a deal with the prosecution.

A 26-year-old man, accused of soliciting a 14-year-old girl, has been indicted on the charges by a Bedford County grand jury.

Angelo E. Paderes Sr., who is listed with a Bedford address on court records but was arrested in Georgia, is facing four counts of computer solicitation and one count of carnal knowledge. He was indicted on all of those counts by the grand jury.

Charges against a Roanoke man, accused of putting his deceased grandmother in a steel barrel while living in Bedford County so he could continue to collect her social security checks, have been certified to the grand jury, following a preliminary hearing Monday in General District Court.

Robert Andrew Wozniak, 48, has been charged with four counts of obtaining money by false pretenses and one count of disposing of a body with malicious intent to avoid detection.